House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Monday demanded President Joe Biden fire the Capitol Building’s top manager after losing the speaker’s confidence following a 90-minute appearance before the House Administration Committee on Thursday.
“The Architect of the Capitol, Brett Blanton, no longer has my confidence to continue in his job,” McCarthy said. “He should resign or President Biden should remove him immediately.”
Blanton, the man in charge of managing the nation’s Capitol Building, was asked to resign after facing serious allegation of missing U.S. taxpayer-funded resources.
J. Brett Blanton, Architect of the Capitol, speaks during the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022, on the West Front of the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Blanton has also faced criticism for failing to drive to work on January 6, 2021. Blanton has explained that he believed that decision was “prudent” at the time. He claimed to a have managed the building on January 6 from his official vehicle he dubbed the “mobile command post” where he directed his team and listened to police radio.
Protesters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
“I find it mind-blowing that the head of the AOC, the leader, knowing what you knew — probably a lot more than we did that day — would not have been in this building ensuring the safety and security not only of the building but of the employees that you lead,” Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK) stated at Thursday’s hearing.
Stephanie Bice (Stephanie Bice for Congress)
According to an inspector general report, Blanton mistreated many U.S. taxpayer funded resources, “including improperly using official vehicles to drive all around the Washington region, as well as to South Carolina and Florida, and had impersonated a law enforcement officer after a family relation experienced a hit-and-run,” Politico reported.
McCarthy is not the only politician calling for Blanton’s resignation. In 2021, six lawmakers called on him to resign, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).
Blanton was presidentially appointed the Architect of the Capitol in 2020 and can only be fired by the president. Congress has no authority to dismiss him.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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